Suffield honors late captain: ‘Every department needs a Matt Moulton’
Moulton mentored a generation of firefighters and served Portage County for 23 years in the fire and rescue service
The haunting toll of a bell echoed in the truck bay of Suffield Township Fire Department on Sunday afternoon. Surrounded by family, friends and over 100 firefighters, colleagues of Captain Matthew Moulton sounded the bell in three sets of three rings apiece, as is tradition at a fire service memorial, signifying the fallen firefighter’s final return home.
The fire captain received a full honor guard and vehicle procession with over a dozen departments participating in the remembrance. During the ceremony, after the bell rang and before Moulton’s last call was given, service members presented Moulton’s helmets and an American flag to his widow Rachel Shircliff-Moulton, daughter Grace Moulton and stepdaughter Emma Shircliff.
Moulton died Dec. 4 at age 42, stirring an outpouring of mourning across Portage County. Hundreds of people posted heartfelt comments on social media, and donors contributed over $20,000 to a fundraiser for his family.
Moulton was universally praised Sunday for his dedication to his work and to the next generation of firefighters. He co-founded and advised Suffield’s Fire Explorers program, mentoring many high school students and grooming many for careers in public service. One of them was William Apitz, a Suffield firefighter who served in the honor guard during Moulton’s memorial service. Apitz was one of the first explorers Moulton recruited.
“My first year on, I only wanted to work with Matt,” Apitz said. “He was fun and would teach you the job.”
Moulton also worked with the Mogadore Fire Department as a firefighter/paramedic. Mogadore Fire Chief John Cain said Moulton trained as hard as he worked.
“I gotta laugh because whenever we had a training fire he came out black,” Cain said. “Anyone else could come out clean, but not Matt. He’d be black and his helmet would be burnt. He’s gonna be sorely missed.”
Suffield Fire Chief Bob Rasnick acted as master of ceremonies for the memorial service, speaking often of Moulton’s eagerness to help people.
“If anybody needed help he’d be the first one to come help,” said Rasnick in an interview before the service. “He had a big heart and was always willing to help a firefighter or a neighbor.”
Outside of the fire department, Moulton continued to help his community. His obituary describes the numerous aid trips he made, driving thousands of miles to deliver hay to rural areas when wildfires devastated vast parts of the country. He loved farming and hoped to expand his own farm, Hidden Meadows, once he retired.
Moulton was a captain, a rescue diver, mentor, firefighter, flight medic, dispatcher, prankster and to many, a friend and a brother. He started his fire career before graduating high school as a cadet with the Rootstown Fire Department and eventually started a career at Suffield Fire where he served for 23 years, seven of those as a captain.
Randy Porter, Charlestown Township fire chief, was a close friend of Moulton’s. The two met in Boy Scouts and continued their friendship for over 30 years. One year, Porter recalled, the two were on a whitewater rafting trip and joked about joining the Coast Guard to become rescue divers. Some years later the two joked that since they didn’t end up as Coast Guard divers they could at least be divers in the fire service.
That joke turned into eight years of service on the Portage County Water Rescue Team for Porter and 16 years for Moulton as a diver and certified dive officer. Porter now works as one of the chiefs overseeing the team.
“So we both got to live out our childhood dreams,” Porter said.
Sitting in the main room of the Charlestown Fire Department after the ceremony, Porter talked lovingly of his friend and fellow firefighter, describing Moulton as the type of person who would treat people with respect and camaraderie from Day One.
“I’m not sad that I lost him, I’m sad that you never got to meet him,” Porter said. “Every department needs a Matt Moulton. When you lose one of your fixtures you don’t even try to replace it because you know you can’t. You hope somebody emerges into that roll, having been mentored by him.”
For the last seven years, Porter and Moulton had collaborated on ways to help their fellow service members combat the hidden enemy in public service: mental illness. Their job was, and continues to be, to bring awareness to first responder PTSD and the support available to those affected by it. Their goal, the goal Porter now continues to strive for, is to ensure every firefighter retires physically and mentally healthy.
“We have to make the fire service better, we have to learn to take care of one another,” Porter said. “It’s my job to finish the job Matt and I started, and to make it come to fruition.”
